


Cough Drop

by AsagiStilinski



Series: Pridecember 2018 [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Cameos, Crime Fighting, DC Comics References, Established Relationship, M/M, Secret Identity, Superpowers, ygopridecember2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-06 02:05:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16822957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Seto Kaiba has been a vigilante for around a year now, and he's spent pretty much the entire time "competing" (in his opinion) with a team of super-dorks who keep trying to recruit him, now the one he's most curious about- who goes by the name Pharaoh- seems to have come down with a cold, this may just be the perfect chance to learn his secret identity......





	Cough Drop

**Author's Note:**

> Day 2 of Pridecember 2018- "Nature"
> 
> Because plant based powers

"If you think you can steal from the largest cooperation in Japan, you're dead wrong," Seto hissed, his dart gun aimed square at the theif's chest

He had no problem using lethal force if he thought it was called for, but a small time theif- and an amateur at that, obviously- wasn't worth the effort

"Right about now you're probably thinking that I'm not worth the time of day aren't you? Well you're about to get a hard and fast lesson in underestimating your opponent," the villain smirked, suddenly pulling a small, round object out of his belt and tossing it at the other

Hurriedly, Seto clicked a button on the digital pad on his arm, a sheild springing up in front of him as the ball exploded, a strange green smoke filling the air

He hurried to press another button, a black filtering mask forming over the bottom of his face to keep the smoke out as he glanced over the top of his sheild

Crap....

The guy was gone, he was going to have to find him now, he just needed to-

"Heeey!!! Blue Dragon!! It's been a hot minute, where ya' been!?"

Oh _hell_

He turned to glance over his shoulder in annoyance at the trio who had appeared

Light Magician, a short guy in a mostly purple and black suit, styled similarly to magician robes- he had assorted magical abilities

Luck, the guy who had been speaking, who had a black and red suit with card suit patterns- his abilities were, appropriately, luck based

And finally, Pharaoh, who's suit was definitely the most elaborate, black and gold and armor like, with golden accents that resembled Egyptian jewlry- he could control shadows and darkness

Each sported a blonde (or mostly blonde) ponytail and a cape- a simple one for Light Magician, a short one for Luck, and a long bellowing one for Pharoah- and a mask over their eyes similar to Seto's own, dark and covering their eyes, each colored to match their suits, with Pharaoh's being the only one with any alterations

It looked like the top of Anubis' face, appropriately enough

Seto had been dealing with these idiots for over a year now and he was both sick of them and .... a little bit attached, not that he would ever admit it

"'Ey, Blue!!"

Ugh, he never should have let Mokuba pick out his vigilante name

And he _was_ a vigilante, not a superhero, no matter what the Super Dweebs said

If anything he was more of an anti-hero really, he identified more with Deadpool than Spiderman

None of this was about The Greater Good, it was about his own interests, keeping his company and his brother safe after one too many incidents

That was all

"I was out of town, not that it's any of your business," he grunted back

"OOoh vacation?"

"Luck, not to interrupt, but can we please focus?"

Light Magician was always so polite that it almost sickened him

"We're looking for a theif, light hair, blue and black clothing, he seems to have plant based powers?"

"Well I don't know about his powers but I know who you're talking about, I happen to be after him myself,"

"Great! Then we can help eachother!!" Magician smiled brightly, as if this were some sort of playdate and not a serious matter

"Wrong, I'm going after him, if you three absolutely MUST tag along then I don't want to waste the effort stopping you," he huffed, his sheild folding back neatly into a tiny cell on his digital arm pad

"Aw man, why ya' gotta be like this?" Luck huffed as the three started following him off of the roof

Magician could fly, Luck used what could only be described as truly skilless parkor, and Pharaoh vanished into the shadows

Personally, Seto just preferred using a hang-glider, like Kaito Kid

It didn't take long for him to spot the theif, considering that he was on another roof-top just a few buildings over

....

One wrapped in vines.....

Hm, now he understood what Magician had meant about plant based powers...

"What're ya' after this guy for anyway? We're chasin' 'im 'cause 'e stole this magic artifact from the museum, but it don't really seem like your speed..." Luck mused as he landed on the roof beside Seto

"That information is classified, and not that I care, but where's the rest of your Dweeb Patrol?"

Usually the Super Dorks had atleast two to four other people with them, on occasion they had five, but three was rather unnatural

"Oh, uh, 'Zure an' the others are chasin' down this freak's partner," Luck shrugged back

Seto merely grunted, his hang-glider folding back neatly into his cape as he started walking towards the villain across from them, who seemed to currently be unaware of their presence

So far, unfortunately, it was just he and Luck

Magician was hovering somewhere nearby, and Pharaoh was likely staying hidden for stealth purposes

Great....

The theif seemed to be in the midst of laying some sort of seeds onto the rooftop, though it was unclear what they were going to be used for....

"You know if you're going to rip off Poison Ivy's powers, the least you could do is not hide your face like a coward," Seto noted, drawing the stranger's attention

..

Along with a smirk

"Funny you should mention Ivy, who do you think I got my powers from?"

"Oh great, villains helping villains, because the world needs more of that," he huffed in irritation, eyes suddenly turning down to focus on the ground rumbling beneath them

Apparently the seeds had started to take hold....

And up from the roof began to sprout stalk after stalk of massive plants, easily being manipulated by the villain in front of them

Great, just great....

He sighed as he pulled a few dragorangs from his belt, tossing them at the plants and watching as the stalks easily split open

Magician suddenly appeared beside him and started working on the others, before glancing over his shoulder at Luck- who was tossing playing cards at the others

"Luck! See if you can get him!" Magician shouted

"You got it buddy!"

"Hey, what's with Pharaoh? What, is he too good for this sort of thing?" Seto huffed

"Actually he has a cold today, Jo- uh.. Lucky and I sent him home," Magician replied, casting a fire spell at a few vines as they spread closer

A cold...?

Well, that would rule out a considerable number of species then

Seto was trying to build a database for super-powered individuals for his own safety and purposes, compiled by himself and consisting of everything from name to species to weaknesses, just in case

And if Pharaoh had a cold, that would rule out several things that he could be

Alien, werewolf, vampire-

"Better watch out ya' Ivy rip-off, Lucky's comin' for ya',"

As much as Seto detested Luck- mostly- he had to admit, watching him "fight"- if you could call it that- was pretty... unreal

The vines came towards him but he just... walked around them, they ended up twisting and twirling around eachother

He practically skipped around the seeds forming in the ground and when the villain launched weapons at him he barely had to dodge, in fact they all collided with eachother, exploding here and burning plants there, he could even do it with his hands behind his back

_Show off_

Seto drew his own baton and smacked one of the massive vines that had shot out of the roof, watching in slight amazement as the lucky hero jumped onto one of the vines and took a pair of dice out of his belt pocket

Now, any other superhero would have _exploding_ dice, but Luck...

All he had to do was toss them, and when the villain stepped forward towards him....

He stepped right onto them, slipped, and fell on his face

Freaking _probability manipulation_

(He _refused_ to call it luck)

"Ah!!"

Glancing over his shoulder, Seto hurried to bash his baton against a vine that had managed to curl it's self around Magician, lifting him high into the air and thus drawing Luck's attention

"Yug!!!" Luck shouted, turning away from the villain and tossing some cards at the vine

Seto huffed quietly, done with trying to beat the thing to death as he pulled a dagger from his belt and started to slash at the vine

The cards helped, thankfully, and in seconds the smallest of them was free again

But before they could celebrate, Seto's attention turned towards the villain, who was now on his feet again and aiming some sort of gun towards Luck

Just as he fired, however, a shadow appeared behind him, and Pharaoh emerged, wrapping his arms around the villain and slamming him to the ground, the poisonous dart that had been shot out of the gun landing instead in one of the vines and killing it instantly

Avoiding Luck, obviously

Usually Seto would consider this to be essentially the end of the fight, as Pharaoh was known for being able to end things quickly once getting his hands on an opponent

But to his shock, the villain easily elbowed him to the face and nocked him to the ground, before pulling another ball from his belt and crushing it against the ground, that same green smoke began to surround them

"It's poison!! Cover your mouths and noses!" Seto shouted

Magician was able to summon a second half to his mask with a simple flick of his wrist, and Luck-

"Hey look, a mask is laying on the ground!"

_Well_

"Pharaoh!!" Magician shouted, as the hero in question began to cough, his body shaking, falling to the ground

Seto's eyes narrowed, running suddenly into the crowd of vines to get to the other as Magician took to the sky and Luck tossed another die at the villain, successfully hitting him in the forehead and nocking him out

....

Gods, Seto hated probability manipulation.....

"Pharaoh!!" Magician shouted a second time, starting to fly closer as Seto bent down and lifted the fallen hero into his arms

"I'll handle him, you two take care of the crook!" he ordered, not giving the others much choice as he jumped off of the roof with the other laying limp in his arms

It wasn't difficult to get his glider going, spotting an empty clearing in some nearby woods and landing there with ease, then folding his glider back up and setting the other down on the ground

He was out cold, that was for sure

With a quiet sigh, Seto took off the bottom part of his mask, no longer needing it, and searched the digital database for what he needed, a small compartment opening under the digital panel in his suit to reveal the syringe he had been looking for

Kaiba Corp had (secretly, ofcourse) developed a powerfull serum that could cure any poison if administered in less than five minutes after initial infection

This should be no different than any other herb-produced poison, and since that was all Ivy dealt with....

He wasted no time in shoving Pharaoh's sleeve up and injecting the antidote into his veins

It would take a few minutes to work, so he should really stay and make absolutely certain that it did, the last thing he needed was to make an assumption and end up with a dead superhero on his hands

Sighing quietly, he sat back and pulled off his gloves, staring down at the other's masked face and gently placing his fingertips against his cheek

Ah, he was cold...

Hopefully some warmth would return to him after the antidote started working....

He leaned back against a tree, staring up at the sky, wrinkling his nose

It looked like rain...

He hoped the other would wake up soon so they wouldn't get wet

Blue eyes flicked downwards again, staring silently at the superhero and feeling a slight itch in his fingers

He didn't know the identities of any of these Super Dorks, and of all of them, he had definitely always been the most curious about Pharaoh's, it would certainly serve his data base well if he could match a name and a face with the mask

And he was so out of it that there was no way he'd know if Seto took a peak, right?

Licking his lips, he slowly reached out, his fingers sliding underneath the mask

All he had to do was pull, just... lift up, just slightly, just a little bit....

He bit his tongue, hesitating... hesitating....

He couldn't do it

He would be devastated if someone did that to him, learned his identity through such an underhanded tactic....

He couldn't do that to Pharaoh, he respected the guy too much, as hard as it was to admit, so he slowly removed his hand and sighed, leaning back again and grabbing his gloves

Just as he started tugging them on, however, he heard a loud gasp from the body next to him

Pharaoh shot straight up, groaning and putting a hand to his head but still seeming to be in fight mode, scanning the area with shadows beginning to creep out from around him

"Relax Superman, you're safe," Seto said dryly, pulling his gloves all the way back on

"O-Oh.... Dragon...." he muttered quietly

His voice was hoarse and clogged, clearly he had a cold, just as Magician had said

"What... what-"

"I happened to have an antidote on me so I gave it to you, don't mention it,"

"Do I even want to know why you have an antidote for that poison?" he sighed quietly, slowly bringing his legs up and wrapping his arms around them, head bowing to rest on his nees

"No, you really don't," Seto replied back, picking up his half-mask and pressing a button on his digi-pad, watching with disinterest as it dematerialized and went back to it's place in his suit

"Where are the others?" Pharaoh mumbled quietly

"Safe, they're dealing with the theif as we speak,"

Pharaoh merely gave a weak thumb's up, not looking up from the cocoon of darkness he had built for himself

It was... odd, and completely unlike him

"You're pretty sick, aren't you?"

"It's nothing to worry about, I just... am not used to these viruses...."

"Have you never been sick before?"

"That is a very complicated question, but.... it has been a very, very long time since I've fallen ill,"

Ahh... how badly Seto wanted to learn more about him.....

He almost regretted his decision not to lift up that mask

....

_Almost_

"I see," Seto muttered back, tapping on the digi-pad again and this time producing a small pack of cough drops

"Here, take these,"

Glancing up, Pharaoh stared down at the medicine in confusion, foggy crimson eyes shifting up to meet Seto's

"...Cough drops...?"

"They aren't normal cough drops, they'll make you feel better,"

"And do I wish to know how you obtained these or what exactly they are?"

"Not if you want to live,"

He was still hesitant, but ... ultimately he reached out, slowly taking the pack of drops and peeling it open, taking one out

"How many..?"

"They last for twelve hours at a time, I'd take them religiously if I were you, there are enough in there to last a few days and by then your cold should be gone anyway,"

Kaiba Corp was also developing a cure for the common cold but that was far less progressed than the cough drops, wich were nearly done with human trials and ready for marketing

Nearly

".... Thank you," he said quietly, slowly pushing the drop into his mouth

He sucked on it for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck

"..Mm... tastes ... like lemon tea?"

"I developed these for myself,"

"Ofcourse," he said with a slightly amused chuckle, coughing suddenly into his hand and squeezing his eyes shut

"Mm... Dragon.... why are you so opposed to joining my team again?"

"Because I don't work well others, besides, I've told you before-"

"Yes yes, you aren't a superhero, I heard you," he sighed, slowly climbing to his feet and leaning against the tree next to Seto's

"Yet I cannot help feeling that an anti-hero would not have done so much for me,"

Seto snorted, rising to his feet as well and wrapping his arms around his chest

"Even Deadpool makes exceptions for Spiderman,"

Pharaoh smiled softly, shyly, and wrapped the cough drops back up, setting the remainder in a small pouch on his belt

"Thank you, truly,"

"I'm serious, don't mention it,"

Before Pharaoh could reply again, a quiet beeping sound rang out, and he hurried to grab the beeper from his belt

A second later, a hologram of Supergirl appeared above the beeper

_"Pharaoh! I need your help with something in National City, can you come?"_ she asked in perfect Japanese

Ugh, _Kryptonians_

"I'll be there in a moment, I was just finishing something here," he promised politely

_"Thanks! I'll see you in a second!"_

And just like that, the hologram vanished

... Weird though, those holographic beepers just went on the market a few months ago, they were pretty expensive and Pharaoh didn't strike him as the type to unload much money on technology

Before market release, they had only been given out to a hundred people at a fund raiser Seto had been hosting...

Well, maybe one of the other team members insisted they all had these beepers or something, or maybe Supergirl had gotten one for him, since obviously she had one too

"I'm sorry, I must be off," he said, turning his attention back to Seto

"Go on and save the world, I'll tell the others what happened if I see them,"

"Thank you Dragon, truly," Pharaoh said one last time, finally disappearing into the shadows once again

Seto just sighed, calling for a car as he started walking through the woods, hoping to get to a place where he could leap from to use his hang glider

He didn't need to be thinking about Pharaoh this much, he had a boyfreind- a boyfreind he loved dearly

He didn't need a superhero clogging his judgement

~+~

_"Good news, the trials just finished this morning, we're moving on to marketing, my team just sent for the approval from the FDA a few hours ago,"_

"Good to know, I wish I had news that positive on your's though, Miss Luthor,"

_"It's alright, I expected it to be a long process, ambitious projects usually are, speaking of, how's your cold cure coming?"_

"Nearly done, I expect we'll be moving to human trials in a few months, if you'd like to partner for that as well I certainly wouldn't be opposed,"

_"Excellent, L-Corp is always happy to partner with Kaiba Corp for anything you're working on,"_

"I'll hold you to that," Seto smirked as he stared at the video call screen

_"By all means do, oh and before I forget, thanks again for those holographic beepers, my girlfreind and I use them all the time,"_

"Don't mention it,"

Unfortunately, the conversation was cut a bit short by someone else poking their head in on Lena's side

_"Lena? You ready to go?"_

_"Ah... just a second Kara, I'm almost finished,"_

Pausing, Lena turned back to the screen, smiling a little more brightly now

_"Speak of the devil, I was due home a wile ago,"_

"Don't worry about it, I'm due for a lunch date myself," he replied

The two each gave a nod of consideration, before simultaneously ending the call

And, as Lena had said, speak of the devil...

"Seto? Are you ready for lunch?"

He glanced up from his computer, nodding breifly in his boyfreind's direction

"Just one moment, do you have anything in mind?"

"Ah... perhaps pasta of some kind?" he suggested, coughing suddenly into his palm

Seto's eyebrows raised, glancing at his partner as he hurried to clear his throat and adjust his glasses

"Atem? You alright?"

Atem never coughed, and actually... Seto had known him for several years and yet he couldn't remember him ever being sick either....

"I'm fine really, just getting over a cold," he promised, setting his files down on Seto's desk and smiling sweetly at him

"Are you now...? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"O-Oh it just... came on quickly and left quickly, I .. didn't even notice a bad spot really..."

Odd....

Silently, Seto rose from his chair, watching Atem fiddle with his glasses again and purposely bumping into him as he moved, watching in surprise when something tumbled out of his pocket

"What's that?"

"Oh! Cough drops! A freind gave them to me last night," he smiled back sweetly, picking up the package and taking a drop

They were _his_ drops

Kaiba Corp's

The ones that hadn't even been on the market yet.....

That meant-.......

"Seto? Are you ready?" he repeated, smiling up at his boyfreind

Seto was quiet for a moment, before wrapping an arm around his waist

"Yes... let's be off,"

He would bring it up to him eventually, but for now.....

For now, he could get more fun out of tormenting him with questions about it

Teach his boyfreind to keep a superhero identity from him


End file.
